I'd like to follow up on my last email, in which I theorized about the Forerunner and underwater buildings. If you haven't noticed, I always mention the Rowley novels when I speculate about Halo's story. Here's another juicy connection.

Here's part of my last email:

"The planet [the extinct race's homeworld] eventually dried up and became forgotten, but was inhabited by a crew of humans who ran into it by chance (hint hint)."

Now, those humans established themselves on that world and populated it. They eventually discovered the ancient weapon, the Starhammer, and then the word got out. The word spread across the entire galaxy, but many thought that the Starhammer and the Vang were just rumors. A religious clan in the book really believed that it existed, and only two of their members knew the exact coordinates for the Starhammer. The alien slavers, the Laowon, knew about it, also, but they kept it a secret (the fact that they glassed one of their own planets because of the parasitic Vang was also kept secret).

Once the Laowon heard that the cultists were searching for the Starhammer, a huge chase ensued. The Laowon knew that he who posessed the Starhammer, posessed the fate of the universe. Kinda like what Keyes said:

"Whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe."

How does this all fit into the Halo story? Easy. Humans came across another Halo in the past. They first met the Covenant there. The Covenant didn't like them intruding, and started a war to destroy all humans. Why? They believed that the humans actually knew how to activate the Halos and maybe fire them, and because of this, were a serious threat. As the Covenant invaded human planets, they found Forerunner items, as they did in 'The Fall of Reach'.

This is what the Laowon wanted to do: destroy anybody that knew about the all-powerful Starhammer, and maybe even have it for themselves. This is what the Covenant want to do: destroy all of humanity because some human somewhere may know the secrets of the ancient Forerunner fortress worlds!

I think it may go a bit deeper than that with the Covenant. Their actions seem to have a lot of political/religious significance. They also seem to have some racial issues they have yet to address. ;-)